A pink and white psychedelic swirl patterened cigarette lighter. Probably worth all of about $2 but it was taken by a friend who couldn't work out what the big deal was. Uhh, you don't steal from friends?Hindsight - she wasn't as good a friend as I was convinced she was...

I had one of those "friends" too when I was in my late teens/early 20s. We both reached for a copy of a cassette single (!) at the same time. I got it first. She pulled it away. I initially relented, and then went, "Wait, no. I had it first. I'll tape you a copy." A couple weeks later, I noticed that it was missing from my tape rack, and when I asked her, she was defiant that it had rightfully been hers to begin with. Yeah, the friendship didn't last much longer.

When I was a kid, I had these awesome little dolls called "Oh, Jenny" dolls. They were tiny hard plastic toys, smaller than my thumb, and the arms and legs were movable. One of the best parts was since they were solid plastic, you could play with them in the dirt or water without messing up doll hair or whatever. I used to make little tents for them in dirt spots or the sandbox and play Arabian Nights. Or I'd take them to my brother's baseball games and play in a giant dirt pile, playing Clan of the Cave Bear in the "caves" I made in the dirt. They were so great.

I had this friend-who-wasn't-a-friend, as everybody has. I had no spine. After we played with the dolls, I noticed that a few dolls were disappearing. And then she had some of these dolls, which she hadn't had before. I think some of the dolls may have even had something distinct (a scratch or mark) that made me really think they were mine. I cried to my parents about it. They helped me to put some of these little tiny dot stickers onto the bottoms of the dolls and furniture in places you wouldn't necessarily see. Next time I played with the friend and she claimed stuff was hers that wasn't, I showed her the dots and told her it was mine. She claimed that another friend of ours had sold her the dolls (implying that the other friend stole them from me), but the thefts stopped. I don't think I ever got anything back, though.

Stolen toys reminded me of a childhood friend who wasn't allowed to have Barbies or other plastic American/capitalistic toys (I guess she could have wooden dolls or something). My parents weren't as strict and we had several My Little Ponies, among other things. One day one of the ponies went missing and by coincidence the friend had the exact same pony and she could prove that it was hers, as it had her name written in thick black permanent marker on its sides. It was returned to me but apparently the only way to get the name off was to file it and the pony was never the same.

My work stash of ibuprofen. Not so much that it was stolen, but how it was stolen.

I always keep a bottle of pain killers in my desk for the odd headache. One day, someone emailed the whole office (only about 25 people) asking if anyone had any ibuprofen for a headache. I offered her some, she came down to my office and got it. Life was good.

A few months later, I needed the ibuprofen. Grabbed the bottle out of my desk drawer and it was empty. About 90 or so tablets, gone.

I hadn't had a day off since giving my co-worker the ibuprofen. So she or someone else was waiting for me to leave my office, then sneaking in and taking some. Which just seemed weird and creepy to me.

Really puzzling, because I'd have freely given some to anyone who asked for it.

But the result was that I started hiding it, because while I don't mind sharing, it was there for *my* benefit when I needed it. I wasn't going to be caught with an empty bottle again.

I don't know if this one was weird, exactly, but it was certainly silly. At one workplace, I kept a glass jar of sweets on my desk. I specifically had them there to share, and if somebody asked the answer was always "Sure! Take some!", so nobody needed to steal them - and someone still did. Every so often, the level would go down a bunch while I was away from my desk, about a handful's worth.

The school where my cousin taught was burgled, and several musical instuments and the libary's entire set of the Encylopaedia Britannica were stolen. All items were found in the gardens of houses in streets next to the school.

Seashell-shaped soaps. Our neighbor kids weren't allowed to have ANY toys (their mom was very unusual and had dozens of stuffed animals of her own they weren't allowed to touch), and I guess they thought we wouldn't miss shaped soaps. My mom saw the little girl walking funny in her (clear jelly) sandals and saw the soaps under her heels.

She felt pretty bad taking them back, but felt that the kid should know not to steal.

My husband left the garage door open one night. The next morning, my Coach briefcase was missing. When I started talking about the replacement cost, my husband was very upset. He lucked out. Whoever stole the briefcase tossed on the next street. A neighbor found it with my business card called me and returned it. Thieves must have been male, because I don't know any female that would turn down a $400 briefcase. I think they were hoping to find a computer.

A wooden recorder and an old teddy bear were stolen from me, and unfortunately I didn't notice right away. I suspect the thief was an ex-BIL who was known to steal anything valuable that wasn't nailed down and he probably hocked the recorder. But an old teddy bear? I just hope that a child is loving it somewhere.

Bragging about booby-trapping food is frowned upon in this forum. JSYK.

Sorry, I phrased that badly. I didn't put anything inedible, poisonous, allergenic, or harmful in the jar; it was perfectly normal sweets, that some people don't like. I definitely wouldn't agree with putting anything that wasn't harmless food where someone would eat it, no matter what they'd done.

I usually have breath mints or chewing gum inside a drawer at work. But I had some leftover candies for the trick-or-treaters after Halloween, not a lot, so I brought them to work. Not very long after I put them in a small jar on my desk, I received unpleasant comments from some coworkers along the lines "Oh no! Fattening candies!" I said,"Well, I will just keep them hidden so they won't tempt you." And so I did. Later in the day, I felt like having a candy, and I noticed half the candies gone.

Okay, some people complain they don't want candy (which I didn't even offer), and then they activately searched for them in closed desk drawers? Very strange. All right, maybe it wasn't the three or so persons I had in mind, but someone else who had some. I really didn't care that someone wanted a little candy.

But my suspicions were confirmed when near the end of the day, one of the vocal complainers came up to me and said, "Your candy was terrible! I had to spit it out!" "Yeah! I hated it!" another said. "Don't you have anything *normal*?" yet another one said.

I was surprised their admission they had my candy which I had hidden. I asked what did they have.

One had an atomic sour candy, one had a cinnamon candy, and the other was licorice-flavored.

I think the wrapper had the flavor on them. Why would they take something they did not want in the first place, and was a flavor they didn't like in the second place?

Bragging about booby-trapping food is frowned upon in this forum. JSYK.

Sorry, I phrased that badly. I didn't put anything inedible, poisonous, allergenic, or harmful in the jar; it was perfectly normal sweets, that some people don't like. I definitely wouldn't agree with putting anything that wasn't harmless food where someone would eat it, no matter what they'd done.

I don't think that counts as booby-trapping, as long as it's something she would eat. It's the same idea as making a lunch with hot or spicy ingredients that the person making it will still eat, but would also discourage the office food thief. It would be booby-trapping if she used chocolate laxatives.

I have horrible allergies so I kept fast acting Benadryl in my desk. One day I encountered one of my worst triggers and started having a massive attack (throat swelling etc) so I reached into my desk to grab one and they were all gone. One of my coworkers admitted she had been handing them out to other coworkers and did not think about me needing one. Good thing I had an epipen on hand but the boss raked my coworker over the coals for nearly killing me (yes there was a follow up trip to the ER)